Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Cuts Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC cut its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 191,764 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,268 shares during the quarter. AbbVie accounts for 2.4% of Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $29,718,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 89,097.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,719,514,000 after buying an additional 29,170,366 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AbbVie during the fourth quarter worth $3,033,348,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in AbbVie by 29,922.3% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $899,186,000 after buying an additional 6,012,281 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in AbbVie by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,102,311,000 after buying an additional 4,785,277 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in AbbVie by 426.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $754,155,000 after buying an additional 3,768,579 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ABBV. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $173.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. HSBC downgraded AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $167.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Barclays lifted their target price on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $177.43.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In other news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at $42,375,512.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total value of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at $42,375,512.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total value of $24,572,458.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 519,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,020,679.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Up 0.9 %

AbbVie stock traded up $1.62 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $181.97. The stock had a trading volume of 5,418,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,696,566. The company has a market cap of $322.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.66, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $174.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $157.96. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.96 and a 52 week high of $182.89.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.60 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.15 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.41%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 227.11%.

About AbbVie

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers.